This invention involves a pickup truck with additional storage and hauling space located in the passenger cab of the truck and opening into the bed of the truck.
Pickup trucks are now made with elongated or xe2x80x9cextendedxe2x80x9d cabs with back seats. This provides the vehicle with more passenger space, so that the vehicle can function not only as a work vehicle for hauling items in the rear xe2x80x9cbedxe2x80x9d of the truck, but also as a passenger vehicle, particularly for families with small to intermediate sized children.
In order to keep the overall length of the extended cab pickup truck from becoming too large, the bed of the truck is shortened somewhat. This tends to limit the length of the articles that can be carried by the extended cab pickup truck without opening the tailgate of the truck. For example, long boards, ladders, pipes and other elongated objects might not fit in the foreshortened bed of a pickup truck with an extended cab.
Therefore, there is a need to provide an extended cab pickup truck with a hauling capacity that is of sufficient length to haul elongated objects that would otherwise not fit into the conventional sized extended cab pickup truck.
Briefly described, the present invention relates to a pickup truck that has the extended cab configuration, which includes not only the conventional front seats, but the rear seats that are positioned behind the front seats and adjacent the rear wall of an extended cab. The rear wall of the passenger cab defines a rear wall opening that registers with the space above the load bed of the vehicle. The rear seats of the vehicle are spaced apart so as to straddle the rear opening in the rear wall of the cab, leaving a load space between the rear seats that is available for receiving the ends of elongated objects from the load bed behind the cab.
In a preferred embodiment, a load receiving container is centrally positioned at the floor in the rear portion of the passenger cab, between the rear seats and behind the front seats. The load receiving container defines a rearwardly facing load receiving opening that registers with the rear wall opening of the passenger cab so as to be in free communication with the space above the load bed of the truck. The load receiving container tends to confine the forward end of the elongated load placed therein, so that the end of the load received in the container cannot shift forwardly or laterally during normal operation of the vehicle.
Preferably, the load receiving container is located on the centerline of the truck so that the weight of the end of the load placed in the container is confined to the centerline of the truck.
If desired, the load receiving container can also include an upwardly facing internal opening that communicates inside the cab with a door or hatch that selectively opens and closes the internal opening. This provides the occupants of the cab access to the internal space of the load receiving container.
Likewise, a rear door or hatch can be hingedly mounted or otherwise mounted about the rear opening of the load receiving container so as to close the container to the outside atmosphere when a load does not project from the load bed of the truck into the cab. This permits the load receiving container to receive smaller articles without the hazard that the articles would inadvertently move through the rear wall opening of the passenger cab.
Another embodiment of the invention includes the extended cab vehicle with space behind the front seats but no rear seats. This allows the owner of the vehicle to purchase the vehicle without the rear seats but the vehicle has the capacity to receive the load receiving container, and also includes load receiving space straddling the container to increase the over all carrying capacity of the vehicle.
Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide an extended cab pickup truck with improved load carrying capacity.
Another object of this invention is to provide an extended cab pickup truck with a load receiving container positioned in the cab for receiving loads protruding from the load bed behind the cab.
Another object of this invention is to provide a convenient load receiving container inside the cab of an extended cab pickup truck which is accessible both from within the cab and from the load bed.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following specifications, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.